Victor Borge, classical music's clown prince, dies

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) -- Victor Borge, the daffy pianist whose whimsical approach to the classics earned him the moniker the ''clown prince'' of Denmark, died Saturday. He was 91.

Borge's daughter, Rikke Borge, said her father died peacefully in his sleep at his home as the family was gathering to celebrate Christmas. He had just return-ed from a trip to Copenhagen, the city of his birth.

For decades, Borge delighted audiences by deflating the pomposity of classical music. He fell off his bench, played music upside down and repeatedly milked laughs from such classic routines as ''phonetic punctuation'' in which he used goofy sounds to indicate commas, periods and question marks in his monologue.

''I think he brought laughter to every person he came in contact with,'' Rikke Borge said Saturday. ''He had a long and happy life.''

Borge kept up a busy career into his 80s, touring and issuing videos, including his most popular, ''The Best of Victor Borge,'' which sold some 3 million copies. His longtime agent, Bernard Gurtman, said he had had concerts booked for the next two years.

''Some people reach the point where they must try desperately to hold on to something that isn't there anymore, no matter how great they are,'' Borge said in an interview in 1986. ''This is where I am very, very lucky. We all do what we can, we all have limitations. Apparently, within my limitations, there is enough to go on and on and on and on.''

Borge performed 100 or more nights a year, sometimes as pianist and sometimes as conductor, usually as a clown but sometimes in dead earnest. In his later years, he directed Mozart's ''Magic Flute''and prepared a concert version of ''Carmen.''

In 1999, he was one of five performers selected for the Kennedy Center Honors.

Borge was born Jan. 3, 1909, as Boerge Rosenbaum to a family of musicians. He learned English by spending day after day in movie theaters and memorized some of his routines phonetically. Rudy Vallee later gave him a shot at radio, and he became a regular on Bing Crosby's ''Kraft Music Hall.''